COLLEGE PARK — There’s a new boarder at the Kerouac House Project.

The bungalow house in Orlando’s College Park neighborhood, once used by Beat generation author Jack Kerouac, just welcomed Zach Zimmerman as its March-April 2025 writer-in-residence, where he can now work on his own literary classic at the Kerouac House.

A writer and comedian who was named a 2023 Vulture Comedian You Should and Will Know,. the new Kerouac House resident has been published in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, and The Washington Post, and he’s a regular at the Comedy Cellar.

The Kerouac staff had a potluck dinner for Zach on Saturday to welcome him to the bungalow and to introduce him to Orlando’s literary community.

And now the staff is reminding aspiring writers around the globe: the deadline is coming up fast for the fall Writer-in-Residence slots.

“We’re excited to meet our next cohort of writers,” said Erik Deckers, president of the Kerouac Project. “We took a year off and then re-opened our program to new writers. And now we’re ready to do it all again.”

What Is the Writer-In-Residence Program at Kerouac House?

The Kerouac Project is looking for six writers to spend two months each living and working in the same house where Jack Kerouac lived in 1957–58 as he was writing his book The Dharma Bums. Applications are being accepted now through April 14, 2025. The chosen writers will be announced in late May 2025. For information, email kerouacproject@gmail.com. 

Last year, Kerouac Project expanded from 4 to 6 residency openings, and has stayed with that number this year.

As Deckers noted, “Many writers aren’t able to put their lives on hold for three months. It’s much easier for people to do that for seven months instead of 11 or 12.”

The Kerouac Project also noted in a news release that “Each resident will live and work on their writing in the uninterrupted peace of the Kerouac House in the College Park neighborhood, two miles northwest of downtown Orlando. Not only did Kerouac write The Dharma Bums in this house, but he also lived there with his mother when On The Road was published, making him an overnight sensation.”

There are 6 2025-26 residency slots to be filled, from:

• Residency 1: Sept. 1-Oct. 26, 2025
• Residency 2: Nov. 1-Dec. 21, 2025
• Residency 3: Jan. 2, 2026 through Feb. 22, 2026
• Residency 4: March 1-April 19, 2026
• Residency 5: May 1-June 21, 2026
• Residency 6: July 1-Aug. 16, 2026

Interested writers can submit samples of their writing in one of five categories:

• Poetry
• Plays
• Screenplays
• Fiction/Short Stories
• and Nonfiction.

“If you’ve got a story to tell, we would love to hear from you,” Deckers noted, adding that the six chosen writers will be selected based solely on their submitted work, which the Kerouac Project noted has been “outstanding over the years.” 

Writers stay free at the Kerouac House. Their utilities are covered and they receive a $600 food and supplies stipend to use during their residency. Residents are required to participate in four events:

• The welcome potluck dinner held in their honor
• Two creative workshops
• a final reading of their work at the end of their residency.

Zack’s farewell reading is now scheduled for Friday, April 18, at 7 p.m. at the Kerouac House, which is at 1418 Clouser Ave. in College Park.

What is the Kerouac House Project?

Officially known as the Jack Kerouac Writers In Residence, this non-profit provides aspiring writers with the opportunity to live in the house where Jack Kerouac lived while writing his 1958 novel The Dharma Burns. Kerouac lived there rent free for three months, around the same time that his 1957 novel On The Road became a sensation.

The bungalow was preserved and is now known as the Kerouac House, created as a living and literary tribute to Kerouac and his enduring legacy.

For the past 20+ years, the directors have chosen four writers each year to spend three months at the house free of charge, giving them a place where they can focus on their literary projects. The writers also take advantage of quarterly literary readings and writing workshops held there.

This is a volunteer-run organization.

Michael Freeman is an Orlando journalist, playwright and author of the terrifying book “Bloody Rabbit”. Contact him at Freelineorlando@gmail.com.

Freeline Media accepts opinion columns — ones that are polite, civil, and done with insight and good taste — from all points of view, all ideologies, all political parties and concerns. Contact us today at FreelineOrlando@gmail.com if you’d like to share your views and opinions with Freeline Media and our readers.